Nesting During Pregnancy: The Useful and the Funny Things Mom Do

Chances are if you are reading this, you are a mom, so unless you live under a rock, you’ve heard of nesting while pregnant. Nesting is the act of preparing for your baby’s arrival, with a particular focus on the home. Often, you’ll get big bursts of energy and the “biological urge” to prepare. This typically happens in the mid to late third trimester, but can happen anytime, or not at all.

Personally, the majority of my nesting urges hit in the late 2^nd trimester, which turned out to be a huge blessing. Once the 3^rd trimester hit this time around, it was a rude awakening, I had no energy and little motivation. I was thrilled I already had a lot of stuff done so I didn’t have to worry about it.

So how did I nest? What was helpful and what was completely unnecessary?

Things I’ve Done that are Actually Helpful

Organize our kitchen pantry and cupboards–

This was helpful because my previous pantry and cupboard storage left little room for things like bottles and formula. Also, we eventually all have kitchen organization tasks we HAVE to do, like getting rid of expired items and attempting to match Tupperware bottoms and lids (where do the missing ones even go?!) I did do more than what was probably necessary, but nobody complains about an organized kitchen!

Going through other sibling or siblings’ clothes–

The dreaded job of going through your kid’s clothes and pulling out everything that no longer fits and putting in new clothes that will be able to be worn. This takes extra time for me because I like to sort in piles of “sell/donate/throw away” and my type-A personality wants to get that part done right away. I’m actually having a baby of a different gender than my first and traded clothing with a friend so this nesting task was super beneficial. This project was necessary anyway, so I’d recommend if you have other kid(s) that this get done before the new baby comes.

Starting to pack the hospital bag early-

Obviously, I wasn’t going to pack the whole bag super early, but it’s helpful to be prepared because you never know when baby might make its appearance. Packing my bag and having my kiddo’s bag for Nana’s house already packed were super helpful things to do in advance.

Unnecessary Nesting I’ve Done

Preparing the nursery to look “picture-perfect” super early-

This was totally not necessary because a baby isn’t even really utilizing the nursery much the first few months of life. It ended up adding more work for me actually because my older kiddo started going in there. She was all about exploring and pulling out pretty everything I had organized. She was naturally curious and wanted to look at baby toys she hadn’t seen in years in particular.

All the fun, but totally unnecessary, Cricut projects-

Did I NEED a Disney pregnancy shirt that said, “baby needs a dole whip” or a baby onesie that says “pants optional”, etc? Or even that onesie that would announce his name and arrival? Absolutely not. LOL. If you have the time to do this, great, but I wouldn’t make this a priority unless doing these projects is something you love.

I thought it would be fun to reach out to some fellow Toledo Mom’s contributors and see what helpful/silly things that they did while they were pregnant because I knew I wasn’t alone.

Here are some of their answers:

Useful-

–In addition to freezer meals, carpet cleaning, and decluttering, I went around the house and re-organized/updated areas to be more efficient.

–I made freezer meals, purged house decor and listed on Marketplace, and got the carpets cleaned!!! (This one made me laugh because it reminded me of my first pregnancy. Our two dogs both decided to become territorial and pee in the new nursery constantly when she came home. Needless to say, there will be no carpet cleaning until we see if they do this a second time).

Bought clear containers to organize everything like I was part of The Home Edit team or something. (Personally, I’m labeling this as useful because it’s exactly what I did with my kitchen, playroom, etc). Do you need to do this? NO, absolutely not. But personally, having an organized pantry and home just gives me a super-satisfied feeling).

Funny-

I cleaned all the baseboards…

Feeling so psychotic like the nursery HAD TO BE DONE ASAP, even though neither kid slept in their own room until 6 months old lol.

Baked a ridiculous amount of muffins (like 6 dozen) to freeze for quick breakfasts once the baby came. (Funny, but also pretty useful).

I rearranged the entire living room, including moving an upright piano. By myself. Not my smartest moment!

Do you have any useful nesting suggestions? Or better yet, something funny you did while you were nesting? Please share and give us fellow moms a tip or a laugh!